Building professional teachers

Building professional teachers

By Otong Setiawan Djuharie

BANDUNG (JP): An article on teaching by Bantarto Bandoro last
month reminded us that teachers are transformative intellectuals
who must see themselves as professionals who are able to connect
pedagogical theory and practice with wider social relevancies.

Teachers work together to share ideas, exercise a collective
power in the conditions of their labor, and embody in their
teaching a vision of a better and more humane person.

Teaching is, indeed, a political act. One has a set of beliefs
about how people should behave toward one another. He or she has
convictions about the quality of life, the shape of liberty and
the pursuit of happiness. He or she has perhaps more than an
inkling of how his skills as a teacher might be utilized to
create empathy and unity in a world full of misunderstanding.

One is therefore engaged in a political, empowering act when
teaching. The teacher will no doubt be very careful not to push a
particular philosophy or a particular morality on the students.
Teachers nevertheless must act from their deepest convictions
when teaching people to speak tactfully, to interact
harmoniously, to read critically and to write persuasively.

A teacher is an agent for change in a world in desperate need
of change: from competition to cooperation, from powerlessness to
empowerment, from conflict to resolution, from prejudice to
understanding. The question is how teachers should promote
professionalism and how they can best continue to grow
professionally.

One approach to consider is, first, to set realistic goals.
Successful professional teachers must first of all know their
limitations, strengths, feelings and needs, and then set their
own realistic goals. They don't let the world around them dictate
their goals. They let their sense of overall purpose or mission
unfold in the form of daily, weekly, monthly or annual goals.

Second is to set priorities. Priority-setting requires a sense
of one's whole professional and personal life, and how working
hours are best used.

Third, take risks. Professional teachers don't play it safe
all the time. They are not afraid to try new things. Nor are they
put off by limiting circumstances -- what cannot be done, or the
way things are done. They don't linger in the safety of a comfort
zone. They reach out for new challenge.

The key to risk-taking as a professional teaching strategy,
however, is not simply in taking the risks. It is in learning
from one's failures. When one risks a new technique in the
classroom, a new approach with a different student, or a frank
comment to a supervisor, one must be willing to accept a possible
failure in his attempt. Then, one assesses all the facets of that
failure and converts it into an experience that is instructive
for the next risk.

Forth, practice principles of stress management. Teaching is a
career with all the makings for high stress conditions: long
hours, large classes, low pay, pressure to "perform" in class,
high student expectations, emotional connections with students'
lives, bureaucracy, pressure to keep up with a rapidly changing
field, and information overload. Managing those potential stress
factors is an important key to keeping oneself fresh, creative,
bright and happy.

As one begins a teaching career, he or she may feel the weight
of such heavy demands. And a teacher cannot leave the cognitive
and emotional load in the office. Expect to be overworked and
underpaid.

However, one of the most invigorating things about teaching is
that one never stops learning. The complex interplay between
teachers, learners and subject matter continually raises endless
questions to answer, problems to solve, and issues to ponder. If
one is a growing teacher, he or she learns something from every
trip into the classroom. One finds out how well a technique
works, how classroom interactions can be improved, how to assess
a student's competence, how emotions enter into learning, or how
his/her teaching style affects learners. The discoveries go on
for a lifetime.

And what could be more instinctive to the spirit of all
teachers around the world than to finely tune their ability to
become agents for change? The professionalism commitment drives
teachers to help others to communicate with each other and to
negotiate the meaning of peace, of goodwill, and of survival on
this fragile globe. One must, therefore, with all the
professional tools available, passionately pursue these ultimate
goals.

The writer is a lecturer at Sunan Gunung Djati State Institute
for Islamic Studies in Bandung.